Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't have farmers I can convert into factory workers.
It's never easy to be a small country next to a big neighbor.
To represent the nation, you must have multiracial representation.
People support CPF cuts because there are no protest outside parliament.
The world is a diverse place. Nobody has a monopoly on virtue or wisdom.
You have to understand that Singapore is quite different from Mauritius.
If we have no foreign workers, our economy suffers; our own lives suffer.
China is developing very quickly. At every stage, its needs are different.
We are all in favor of the U.S. taking an active and constructive interest in Asia.
It has to be good to live in Singapore because otherwise, nobody will stand for it.
Every time you make a rule, somebody will think of a way to operate around the rule.
With Singaporeans, you speak English, you're well-educated, the doors open everywhere.
Beijing residents joke that to get a free smoke all they have to do is open their windows!
No country can be an island unto itself or world unto itself. Not even the biggest country.
There is always competition for influence, but there are also opportunities for cooperation.
America excels not just through sheer individual talent but by working together with others.
At some point, there will be some other financial crisis. It's in the nature of a capitalist system.
The Chinese are quite clear what their interests are and very consistent on pushing their interests.
Criticism, any amount, we welcome it. Come, let's have a discussion - in Parliament, all the better.
There is no policy too sensitive to question, and no subject so taboo that you cannot even mention it.
Everybody has his place; everybody is equal. Treated equally, equal standing, equal rights and status.
Our people should feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas or simply be different.
China has been developing, growing in economic strength and its influence in the region. That will continue.
My infrastructure must run brilliantly. My whole system must be different from what you can get anywhere else in Asia.
No government prospers by saying, 'I don't need to do anything. Just by being there, we have made the country thrive.'
We are happy to see China prospering; we are happy to see China playing a constructive and positive role in the region.
Singapore needs to be able to continue to add value to China in order for the relationship to be worthwhile for both sides.
In every American election, crazy things are said. Positions are taken which the winners try very hard to forget afterwards.
Maybe Americans feel they don't need the rest of the world anymore, and they wish it would go away. We don't have that option.
It takes time, but I have a promising team of younger Ministers, and I am quite sure from amongst them, one leader will emerge.
Basically, if you become president, you must swear to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and what the Constitution says.
We are not in a situation where the minorities are demanding something and the majorities are pushing back saying 'We don't want it.'
I do not owe hundreds of millions of potential foreign workers from around the world an obligation. I owe Singaporeans a responsibility.
The key thing in Northeast Asia is North Korea. They are unpredictable; they are developing their nuclear capabilities and their missiles.
I hope that soon after the next election, amongst them they will have decided, settled, and the leader will be ready to take over from me.
Over half a century working together on multiple issues, Singaporeans and Americans have made many enduring and close personal friendships.
We want the U.S. to have constructive and stable relations with China. That makes it much easier for us. Then we don't have to choose sides.
America is a great nation, not just because of your power and your wealth, but because of your high ideals, openness, and generosity of spirit.
Overall, we think religion is a good thing. I mean, if we were godless society, we would have many other problems; the communists found that out.
For trade to grow, India must make a strategic decision that you want to encourage interdependence and more openness and more trade-based economy.
Singapore admires America's dynamism, vibrancy, and capacity for self-renewal. These qualities attract the best and brightest from around the world.
Whichever country we are talking to, we are concerned with economic cooperation, how to deepen our mutual dependence, how to find new areas of win-win.
The old model for India was to be self-sufficient. It was the ideal India became independent with, that you spin your own thread, make your own clothes.
It is never helpful to point at sticking points, but it is always helpful to encourage one's partners to take a more active and forward-looking approach.
You need to have good people: honourable, capable, committed in politics, standing in public office. It's not a guarantee, but it's the ideal we have to aim for.
If you make a defamatory allegation that the Prime Minister is guilty of criminal misappropriation of pension funds of Singaporeans, that's a very serious matter.
Countries in Asia - Singapore, certainly, but many other countries too - are good friends to both China and America, and we would like to be good friends with both.
In our society, which is multiracial and multi-religious, giving offence to another religious or ethnic group, race, language, or religion is always a very serious matter.
We have to work towards free trade because otherwise we will miss out on many opportunities for cooperation, and relations amongst countries will become much more difficult.
You have to have a sense of what it looks like, not from the point of view of the policymaker but from the point of view of those who are at the receiving end of your policies.